Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy revealed during a recent interview that their upcoming film, Deadpool & Wolverine, which also stars Hugh Jackman, nearly had Mephisto as its main villain. The immortal demonic entity previously appeared in the 2007 film Ghost Rider and its 2012 sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and could have been the primary antagonist in Deadpool & Wolverine if the filmmakers had decided to keep one of the early versions of the story.
Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy considered having Mephisto as Deadpool & Wolverine’s villain
According to Reynolds and Levy, Mephisto serving as the Deadpool 3 villain was one of the ideas they “flirted with” in the initial stages of the development of the film. However, things changed after Jackman came on board.
“We went through a lot of ‘almost’ versions of this story before we landed,” Levy told Collider. “Frankly, it was the infamous call from Hugh, but then it was this idea of Cassandra Nova as a sibling to Charles because Cassandra’s link to Professor X creates an interesting dynamic and fascination in Cassandra about you [to Jackman],” he added.
According to Levy, Jackman reached out right when he and Reynolds were planning to call Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige about putting Deadpool 3 on hold. Before that, they had “fits and starts” but were struggling to come up with a story that was “original and non-derivative” of the previous two movies, the director told Vanity Fair.
Why Cassandra Nova became the perfect villain for Deadpool & Wolverine
Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) is the perfect villain for Deadpool & Wolverine for multiple reasons. As Levy mentioned, the connection between Cassandra and Charles Xavier makes Cassandra interested in Wolverine. If Mephisto had remained the villain, the story had to go in a completely different direction.
Reynolds also explained that the comic book imagery of Cassandra also played an important role in her becoming the antagonist of the film. When Levy first met Emma Corrin in London, he took his iPad with him, and it had panels depicting Cassandra “with her hands in someone’s skull.” “It was so gross and cool, and we were like, ‘That’s our villain,'” the Free Guy director explained.
